Page 64 of Love Fire

What should I do? The ringing in my head has died down, that’s good. If I move for my gun, I get shot. If I move for Nate, he gets shot. I can’t shift, these hallways are too narrow. This can’t be how it ends. Fuck.

The footsteps reach us, but they're not guards. A team of SWAT officers round the corner with guns raised. Torres groans. “We’ll be coming for you both,” he says before sprinting away.

The SWAT team stops at Nate and I and points their guns at us. I slowly pull out my Draconis Fire I.D. The leader of the team looks surprised.

“I’m Brent Fauquier, agent of the Draconis Fire in charge of investigating Iridescent. That man was Torres Vincent.”

Without a single word to us, The SWAT team chases after Torres. Typical human authorities. They don’t care about us but are more than willing to use our information and take all the glory.

I help Nate to his feet. “Let’s go grab Erin,” he says.

I nod in agreement. We race back to the room we left her in and find it completely empty. Nate and I search the room for clues. Nothing.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” I scream so loud, I’m sure every living guard is now on their way. We had her. I had her. But now she’s gone again.

Torres said she was dead. But that can’t be right. He was lying. He had to have been. She must be alive. Why else would her body be gone? I’ll tear apart this whole warehouse until I find her.

Erin is alive. I know it. She is alive. She is alive. She is alive. I have to repeat it in my head. She is alive.

52

ERIN

The shooting dies out slowly. Some bullets are astray but it’s safe enough for us to peek out of the forte of barrels. There’s still no sign of my brother and Brent. I couldn’t even hear Brent’s cursing as much as I tried.

“Where are those two?” I say to myself.

“You can’t see them anywhere?” Leanne asks.

We stand on our tippy toes, getting a good view of our battleground. The SWAT team members are practically clearing out the arena. Most of the warehouse men are either handcuffed or laying flat on the floor.

My eyes search for them, dearly hoping they aren’t amongst the fallen ones. Just by the clothes, none of the handcuffed or the bodies are from Nate or Brent. To my great relief.

As I still search for them, I see my damned father running out of the warehouse.

“What the fuck?” I frown.

The wretched man turns around to look back. I have about half a mind to shoot him. Even go after him. But Leanne stops me from moving at all.

She drags me back behind the stack of barrels before our father could see us. We’re both ducking, watching him leave. She still holds my wrist tightly.

“What are you doing? He’s getting away, we need to kill him now!”

“He thinks we’re both dead, Erin. Surprise is on our side but we need to play this right.”

“What if that’s the right play? We have a fucking SWAT team here, Leanne.”

She sighs. “I know, I know. But we can’t be impulsive about it either, you know that. How many times has that worked out for us?”

I scoff. “Don’t call him that.”

She’s right though. All the failed attempts at going against him because we were riled up in anger or sadness. It ended worse for us. So, to answer her question, it has never worked.

It kind of irks me that she’s acting so mature while I’m sulking like a toddler.

“We can’t wait here either. We need to find Brent and Nate,” I say.

“Let’s just wait a few minutes to make sure our father already left the premises.”

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